Fears of migrant invasion 'totally unfounded'

Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici deems fears of a different race taking over Malta is "totally unfounded", citing statistics showing most of them want to leave.

He was speaking at a meeting for Nationalist Party grassroots supporters at the PN headquarters in Pietà on Thursday, which was also addressed by the Prime Minister.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the immigrants themselves were being abused by being "packed like sardines" on rickety boats and given only a small and misleading map to help them make their way to Europe.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi stressed that immigration was not just "one of the biggest problems" for Malta but also for the rest of Europe.

However, thanks to the Maltese, the EU had finally started to recognise the problem and was giving Malta the funds it required to continue building on the work it had done in this area.

"Malta is taking all the stands it needs to persuade the EU to take responsibility. The EU cannot let Malta carry the burden alone," Dr Gonzi insisted optimistically.

The Prime Minister said that although repatriation of immigrants was being given the utmost priority by the government, their arrival was being given much more importance by the media. He assured his supporters that from the roughly 10,000 immigrants who arrived since 2002, only some 5,000 remained in Malta.

He said the others had either resettled in Europe or had been repatriated, adding that repatriation was very challenging since it depended on cooperation from the home countries.

Despite being called for the event, the press was asked to leave when the activists were meant to speak so that, in the words of the General Secretary Paul Borg Olivier, they would be able to air their views "serenely".

Earlier, Dr Mifsud Bonnici explained that the vast majority of immigrants wanted to travel to mainland Europe and they were therefore not interested in integrating or staying in Malta. Those who came to Malta were either rescued because they found themselves in distress or had simply lost their way unwittingly.

He emphasised that immigration did not come about because Malta was now in the EU but as the years rolled by new trends developed such as the three large arrivals during this year's winter months.

Compared to other countries, Malta had a disproportionate number of immigrants, requesting and deserving protection. The vast majority came from war-stricken Somalia and Eritrea meaning they automatically qualified for refugee status or subsidiary humanitarian protection.

However, these were also given travel documents, so most of them tried to earn enough money to leave for mainland Europe rather than staying in Malta.

Malta's controversial policy of detaining all arrivals for up to 18 months was essential, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said, to control the borders of Malta and Europe, for security reasons.

Even high EU officials who had criticised this detention had begun to agree with Malta when they considered the number of arrivals and the small size of the country.

The minister said that when high EU officials came to Malta he took them on helicopter tours to give them a visual image. When EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot visited he made sure to take him to the "worst areas of the worst detention centres" to show him exactly what the situation was like and to plead for more assistance.

"After I showed him these places he told me to ask for anything, any amount of money, so that this problem could be solved," he said.

He praised Mr Barrot for having the courage to see the detention centres first-hand, as many other politicians were not bothered to do so.

"I have nothing to hide. Whoever wants to come and see what we are doing can come. Whenever foreign journalists ask to enter I tell them to go inside and speak to whomever they want... We never promised to provide five-star accommodation."

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said doing things well and taking rational, rather than emotional decisions, would show the true calibre of the Maltese government in the long run.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com